Ran across this one today too.
Wow what memories.
My 14 year old son and I discovered the joy of turkey hunting in Dickson County a few years ago.
While we have enjoyed much success and have had a lot of good times the elusive "longbeard" has eluded my son in his kills.
He has killed a few jakes but we could never close the deal on a longbeard.
All that changed on Saturday morning of the juvenile turkey hunting weekend.
We arrived at the farm well before daylight and made our trek across the picturesque creek and up the hill through the woods.
As we broke out into the pasture covered hill that is bordered by woods on each side we knew we were fast approaching our destination.
We arrived at the spot we wanted to set up and as quietly as possible we put up our brand new ground blind.
As the black night turned into a gray morning the birds began sounding off and even in the dim light I could see the excitement in my son's eyes and the smile on his face.
From a strictly "hunt" standpoint this one was straight from the elusive "textbook" of turkey hunting.
The longbeard flew off the roost and landed in the pasture behind us and began walking to the top of the ridge so he could see his surroundings.
My son turned around and got on one knee in the blind and as he confirmed he had a good shot, he killed the bird at a distance of 35 yards.
As we stood over his prize we discovered he had killed a double-bearded gobbler that sported a 10 inch as well as a 6 inch beard to go along with his inch and a quarter long spurs and 23 pounds of body weight.
We hugged and high-fived as even still birds were sounding off around us.
As we began our walk back towards the truck I took a moment of pause and turned and looked in the area we had come from.
I thanked God for yet another lifelong memory made with my son and for his beauty as the sun was just then peeking above the crest of the hill and throwing rays of light through the clouds onto the hill from where he took his first longbeard.
Wow what memories.
My 14 year old son and I discovered the joy of turkey hunting in Dickson County a few years ago.
While we have enjoyed much success and have had a lot of good times the elusive "longbeard" has eluded my son in his kills.
He has killed a few jakes but we could never close the deal on a longbeard.
All that changed on Saturday morning of the juvenile turkey hunting weekend.
We arrived at the farm well before daylight and made our trek across the picturesque creek and up the hill through the woods.
As we broke out into the pasture covered hill that is bordered by woods on each side we knew we were fast approaching our destination.
We arrived at the spot we wanted to set up and as quietly as possible we put up our brand new ground blind.
As the black night turned into a gray morning the birds began sounding off and even in the dim light I could see the excitement in my son's eyes and the smile on his face.
From a strictly "hunt" standpoint this one was straight from the elusive "textbook" of turkey hunting.
The longbeard flew off the roost and landed in the pasture behind us and began walking to the top of the ridge so he could see his surroundings.
My son turned around and got on one knee in the blind and as he confirmed he had a good shot, he killed the bird at a distance of 35 yards.
As we stood over his prize we discovered he had killed a double-bearded gobbler that sported a 10 inch as well as a 6 inch beard to go along with his inch and a quarter long spurs and 23 pounds of body weight.
We hugged and high-fived as even still birds were sounding off around us.
As we began our walk back towards the truck I took a moment of pause and turned and looked in the area we had come from.
I thanked God for yet another lifelong memory made with my son and for his beauty as the sun was just then peeking above the crest of the hill and throwing rays of light through the clouds onto the hill from where he took his first longbeard.
